China-Canada FIPA: Rick Mercer Slams Harper Over Secret Trade Deal

Rick Mercer doesn’t like the way the Harper government signed on to a trade deal with China, and he wants to know just how many supervillains were involved in the process.

In his weekly rant on CBC Tuesday night, Mercer cast the deal — signed during a trade mission to Russia, with no parliamentary involvement — as the sort of cloak-and-dagger politics you’d expect to see in a spy thriller or a nefarious dictatorship.

“Is this a scene from the latest Bond movie? Sadly no, it is the further adventures of Stephen Harper,” Mercer said. “Who is this guy? Since when do Canadian prime ministers sign secret agreements with the Chinese in Russia? Was Dr. Evil there? Was there a naked lady painted entirely in gold?”

The Council of Canadians has called the deal a “corporate rights pact” because it would lead to lawsuits that would force Canada to weaken its environmental regulations. It called on Canada to follow Australia’s example and stop negotiating these sorts of clauses into trade agreements.

Gus Van Harten, an investment law expert at Osgoode Hall Law School, told the CBC Canadians will assume “more of the risks and more of the constraints” of the trade deal than their Chinese counterparts. He said Canadians gained neither investor protection nor market access through the deal.

"We come out on the losing side on both," said Van Harten. "We should insist on reciprocity. The treaty does not allow for market access except under the exisiting legal framework of each country."

The Harper government maintains the deal is necessary for Canada to develop trade relationships with the world's most populous country.